I love polenta, but very often forget about it in favour of pasta or rice. However, for those transitional spring evenings, it’s perfect comfort food: warm, filling, and cooks in under two minutes when you buy quick-cook. But the very best thing about making a pan of polenta is that with barely any extra effort, it’ll give you the basis for a meal the next day. Try pouring half of it into a tray – studded with olives, or with extra cheddar stirred through, perhaps – and chill overnight. The next day, cut it into squares, chips, or even star shapes, and fry until crisp – a cook once, eat twice win.

Cheesy polenta with tomatoes, butter beans and pesto

Prep 10 min
Cook 25 min
Serves 2

1½ tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 x 570g jar butter beans, drained and rinsed
400ml vegetable stock
100g quick-cook polenta (the dry, coarse kind, not the vacuum-packed blocks)
40g parmesan (vegetarian if need be), grated
Flaky sea salt, to taste
Juice of ½ lemon
Fresh basil pesto, shop-bought or homemade, to serve
1 handful toasted pine nuts, to serve

Put the oil in a large frying pan on a low heat, then add the garlic and fry for a minute. Add the tomatoes, turn up the heat to medium, and let them soften, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Stir in the butter beans, cover the pan and cook for a further five minutes. Give it a final stir, then turn off the heat and cover again.

Pour the stock into a large saucepan, bring to a boil, then pour in the polenta, whisking as you go. Whisk furiously for one and a half minutes, until the polenta thickens, then turn off the heat and stir in the parmesan, salt and lemon juice – the texture should be flowing like lava, rather than stiff, so stir through a splash more stock to loosen, if need be.

Taste and add more salt and lemon juice, if required, then serve immediately in wide bowls, with the tomato and butter bean mixture piled on top and the pesto and pine nuts dotted around.